COLORATION OF GAME ANIMALS. 45 



explanation, and which have every bit as much need of protective colours. In fact, 

 there are a great number, such as the red frogs, iridescent blue and purple lizards, 

 and others of striking hues whose coloration seems in direct opposition to this theory. 

 I think that it would be safe to state that the theory of protective coloration, to 

 whatever lengths it is carried, can only be made to apply to part of the reptile 

 world. Some other theory or theories must be found to supplant or supplement it 

 before all the vivid reptilian colours can be satisfactorily accounted for. 



Let me now turn to the colours of birds for a moment. Here one finds colours 

 most striking and conspicuous, as well as others in most perfect harmony with their 

 surroundings. 



The reasons generally given to account for the colours of birds are protection, 

 utility, and sexual adornment. The first and last appear to be more or less in 

 conflict, and the exigencies of the latter sometimes seem to throw to the winds the 

 caution advocated by the former. However, in most cases this is not really so, as it 

 is the male alone who beautifies and adorns himself to attract the female. This, as a 

 rule, leaves the female free to adopt the precautionary colours which are more 

 necessary to her during the anxious time of safely rearing her young. The young of 

 both sexes usually take these protective colours of the female or are even more 

 protectively coloured than is she. It is only when the young males are reaching 

 maturity that they assume the more gaudy male colours. 



With all animals it is the male which is the more ornate. 



With savages, also, it is much the same. The young warrior reaching puberty 

 decks and adorns himself as much to fascinate the woman more soberly clad as to 

 make himself look fierce and awe-inspiring in the eyes of his enemy. With civilised 

 races the exact reverse generally holds, as it is the woman who covers herself with 

 feathers and ornaments to attract the man. She uses for this purpose the very 

 same feathers that have already done duty for the cock bird in his advances to the 

 hen. Even with civilised races, however, traces of the barbaric ornaments used by 

 the young warriors to impose on their enemies are still to be seen. The gaudy 

 uniforms worn by soldiers are so wholly unfitted for modern warfare that they have 

 long since been discarded for that purpose, but still appear in times of peace. 

 Is not the busby, for instance, a survival of savage warfare in which every tribe 

 endeavoured to make its fighting men look as tall, big, and imposing as possible 

 that they might terrify their adversaries ? 



The latter's warpaint, again, is man's improvement on such animal devices as 

 raising bristles all over the body to appear larger, or puffing out the neck or raising 

 a crest on the head. 



